English in DB Songs

[The Tori-bot]

I have a simple question with a (possibly) simple answer:

Why is there so much English littered about the songs in the Dragon Ball world? Especially Don't you see!, which has a whole verse in English.

When I got the ZARD single, her English sounded kinda forced when I listened a little harder. And she had the general "No 'l' 'r' distinction" thing going on, and she seemed to be struggling to not end words with a vowel sound.

And, in Boku-tachi wa Tenshi Datta (my favourite Dragon Ball song ), Kageyama sings 3 English words in the song. Why just 3? Why not just say it in Japanese? Why not say "Dzuki [tame] waga [mai] miuchi [furenzu]"?

One last example I'd like to bring up is Blue Velvet (my favourite GT theme! ), where there is just random English thrown in for seemingly absolutely no reason. Stuff like "jealousy", "no, no, no", "midnight", "loneliness, lonely night" and "I want you".

Absolutely random stuff. Why not "saigi [yakimochi, shitto, saigashin, okayaki]", "nain, nain, nain [hi, hi, hi, iya, iya, iya]", "mayonaka [yoruyonaka, hanshou, juuniji, shoushi]", "kodoku [sekiryou, ronrinesu], "sabishii [samishii, kokorobosai, wabishii, jakunen] yabun [yoru, naito], or "hon'in [warawa, watashi, watakushi, ore, ware, en] ketsobou tamae [omaesan, otaku, yu-, maro]"?

Hoping for some good imput!

P. S. Sorry for all the different Japanese readings, but I felt like it, and I had way too much free time.

[Ash]

Japanese like to use random English everywhere, also in songs. You gotta listen to some '70's till mid 90's anime songs, there's random English everywhere.

(Or even completely English songs, like often used in City Hunter)

[kenisu3000]

Yeah, it's all over the place in songs. A lot of them are also fully-English, as Ash said, and usually performed exclusively by a native-English speaker. I have a Japanese CD of music based on a Famicom game that was never released in the U.S. (called "Mother", if you've heard of it), and it's entirely English-speaking (even the liner notes!), and most of the songs are performed by a British girl named Catherine Warwick. Of course, the lyrics sound incredibly cheesy to a native speaker of English, but nonetheless, I love this CD to death.

[The Tori-bot]

Thanks for both your help guys, I appreciate it.

Has anyone heard the English Cha-La Head Cha-La remix? I personally think Kageyama's English is pretty good.

[Tatsunoboshi Horoko]

Sometimes, most of these lyricial additions, while nonsensical, also pick up a rhyming scheme. I believe in Boku-tachi Tenshi Datta, "To My Friends, senaka no, hane wa nakushita keredo" which makes the verse flow better (in my own opinion, of course.) Let me give you an example from another song completely non-Dragonball related from a fandom I'm a big part in:

Romaji:
I Ride, White Line no jou o Oh, Oh, Oh,
Sit down shinrai shiteru basho de Oh, Oh, Oh,
Mayo'tteru ma ni yukeru ze

My translation (artistic liberties granted):
I Ride, on the White Line and Oh, Oh, Oh,*
Sit down, in a place I trust and Oh, Oh, Oh,
We can go there while we figure things out,

The "Oh, Oh, Oh's" there make absouletely no sense (come to think about it, this particular song is one big grammatical nightmare @_@; )

But that's beside the point. Most of the time these random Engrish words are thrown in just because it makes them sound cool. Sometimes they actually make the scheme roll along better. Sometimes it's just random yodelling that can only be described as weird.

[Kaboom]

In short, they think our stuff is cool just like we think their stuff is cool. Culture, language... the whole enchilada.

Mmmm... enchiladas...

[Jerseymilk]

I find the best way that helps people understand it when I've answered that question is pointing out to them that it's the same way we use French or Spanish words in our speech.

[linkdude20002001]

I'm used to shows with some English in it's music, but Bleach has two insert songs and they are fully English sung by native English speakers. Plus, the new opening theme is completely in English sung by Japanese.

[Jerseymilk]

Some artists are really good at it. Verbal of the group m-flo is bilingual, and if you listen to the band Fake's English-sung songs, you'd never guess they were Japanese.

[The Tori-bot]

Well, this doesn't apply to Dragon Ball, but it does apply to the subject matter.

In the first Tenchi Muyo! TV series, the Japanese and English opening themes are both sung by a woman named Sonia. What nationality is she? She sounds like an American, so... y'know... Japanese came first... they get an American to do the opening theme... they get her for the English dub... did Pioneer have anything to do with the Japanese version?